Angevin # 5: Henry II Part 3: The Juggernaut Marches On

King Henry II Plantagenet was set to bring his new country in line and into profitability. But this was a country he knew little about compared to his holdings in France or of french politics and culture. Research, and mental preparedness was needy before he could rule effectively. He called upon scholars, philosophers, and other learned men from all over his new country to attained his roving court. As a friend of his would say, "everyday is a school day in Henry's court." I say roving because the king never stayed in the same place more than a few days. His first few months, though it was winter, he traveled throughout England; attending hunts at his or other nobles forests, being hosted at various town and city holiday festivals, feasting with his new subjects, and observing local lords courts. He inquired about every detail; wanting to know the concerns, customs, policies, traditions, rivalries, trades, cash crops, etc., of every locality and its lords, of every corner of the English realm, taking note but never intervening. And he was a remarkable student of it all, in and out of the classroom, absorbing everything and forgetting nothing or no one. When he felt he was ready, he called on all the magnates and barons, minor lords and landed knights, to a great attendance of his court in April of 1155. There he had them all swear fealty to him and his two sons, 1 1/2 year old William and new born Henry. King Henry II presented himself as the true heir of King Henry I, and said he was determined to rule in the law and order style of his grandfather, who was known as the "Lion of Justice."

 

A number of immediate reforms to put an end to the last remnants of the civil war were declared at the attendance to show Henry was serious about exerting his authority and bringing the country back to the rule of law. His first decree was to have all unauthorized castles, also known as adultrine castles, demolished. If it was built during the years of the Anarchy without the written consent of either King Stephen or his mother Empress Matilda, it was to come down immediately. Also, in respect to and in the spirit of the original treaty of Winchester, any foreigner (non English, Norman, Scot, or Welsh) that had been granted land and title in England by Stephen or Matilda was stripped of those privileges and given compensation (paltry as it may have been). They were also ordered to leave the country unless they submitted themselves under the direct employee of the King or one of the magnates as a household knight or counselor. Many Flemish and French mercenaries, brought to England by Matilda or Henry, were enraged and felt betrayed, but had no recourse as the Count of Flanders was an ally of Henry and the French nobility did not like the idea of their own knights having a divided loyalty between England and France. Finally he made assurances to those who fought for King Stephen that their positions were still secure as long as they show him the same loyalty they had shown Stephen. To further bring about the peace among his nobles he arranged a number of marriages between rival houses.

St. Thomas Beckett

With the last visages of the Anarchy out of the way king Henry saw that his attention needed to be divided in two between re-establishing the authority of the crown both internally and externally; a cementing of royal authority and rule of law through a court and justice system and a show of power and determination for surrounding rival nations. Foreign diplomacy and military deployment and logistics would require a personal face, so he would need help with the internal work of law and order through writ of the crown. He turned once again for thoughts on legal authority and advise to the church. The arch bishop of Canterbury, Theobald of Bec, helped Henry chose a council of men to minister the internal workings of the government To head this group Theobald recommended his personal clerk and pupil, Thomas Beckett; a young man of modest upbringing, being the son of a landless knight and a merchant's daughter, who had excelled in ever task the archbishop had ever given to him. Beckett would bring tireless proficiency and effectiveness to the job and would quickly became a great friend and confidant of the king's. Beckett's life, career, and downfall will be the subject of the next post, so for now, with internal governance well in hand lets get back to Henry's international show of power.

Prince Owain Gwynedd, King Malcolm IV, and Prince Rhys ap Gruffydd

Being a new ruler Henry knew full well that this was the time other kings would size him up and scheme on whether they can take advantage of this transition of power and time of re-building. First and foremost of these threats would be the King of France who would not have forgotten how Henry humiliated him. Henry needed to quickly show he was in full control of the borders of his new domain and that meant bringing England's borders with Wales and Scotland back to per-Anarchy positions; the late King David of Scotland and two prominent Welsh lords had used the chaos of the Anarchy to gain territory from their English rivals. By tackling these border issues Henry would not only shore up his territory and show a willingness to exert absolute control of his borders, but by showing concern for the security of these areas he would win the support of two of the most militant groups of land holding lords in the realm, the Northern Barons and the Marcher Lords.

Pre and Post Anarchy Wales

 Wales was by no means a unified country in the traditional sense; the ruling families had a unique dynastic scheme that for generations pitted all male family relations against one another and very rarely was the country under the rule of one king. Brothers and cousins of the ruling families (which changed names periodically because of shifting marriage allegiances) would split their territory up among heirs, making each a Prince of his own realm, and than continually fight to assume the others territory into their own; creating a sort of survival of the fittest motif to see who would come out as head of a family. Again, only a handful of times in Welsh history would one "Prince" ever gain enough power to be declared King. But one thing that would bring the various Welsh nations to unity or at least non-aggression with one another was their mutual hatred for the English, be it the Saxons or the Normans. After William the conquer had defeated the Saxons, the ones he was most lenient with were those on England's mountainous western borders with Wales. He gave those Saxon lords willing to accept his rule, and Norman knights willing to accept the challenge of establishing households in hostile territory in order to be made lords in this new land, crate-blanch to build up their own private armies and castles on those border lands. From then on they became known as the powerful Marcher lords, constantly in conflict with the Welsh over trade routes, territory, and all other manner of disputes; and the kings of England for the most part turned a blind eye to however these lords dealt with their Welsh rivals. In fact, with a few exceptions, the Marcher lords were allowed to remain mostly neutral in the Anarchy do to the nature of their positions, but those that did chose sides were highly valued as their armies were seen as the most battle hardened. It was those armies being missing that allowed the Welsh to make tremendous gains on the south cost and north eastern mountain passes, under the command of the two most powerful of the Welsh Princes, Owen Gwynedd of the realm Gwynedd and Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth.

Gwynedd

Henry went after Gwynedd first, being relatively close to the Scottish border he wanted to make an impression with the Northern Barons and the King of Scotland whom he planned on dealing with later. Through surprise Henry quickly regained all the territory that had been lost, however he would find his press into the interior of Gweynedd was ground to a halt. Henry had the idea of punishing Owain's opportunism by taking the province known as Rhuddlan, and to take Rhuddlan all one need do is take the castle of Twthill. Owain knew if Henry finished moving the much larger English force and established a siege of Twthill the castle would not last long and to remove English troops by that point would be near impossible. Henry had split his army in two to cover the ground faster; his infantry and bowman took the coastal route to pillage the fishing villages for food and scare the locals, while his knights, sappers, siege engineers, and other specialized forces traveled the forest route to collect supplies for building the siege engines and encampment for when they got to their destination. The thought was it would make for too easy of a target to drag such equipment all the way from an English town to Twthill, that the regular soldiers could distract Welsh forces as the rest of his forces gathered everything on route to be built on site, all with the protection of the elite Norman mounted knights. Owain did not take the bait, he ambushed the forest caravan in Ewloe (now known as Flintshire) and that being in a forest the mounted knights had little room to maneuver and be as effective against the guerilla fighting Welsh. Henry's forces retreated back to their regained territory. Owain saw his victory over the much superior force as divine protection:

"We are supported by divine assistance, we are far inferior to the English; and they, by their behaviour, have made God their enemy, who is able most powerfully to avenge both himself and us. We therefore most devoutly promise God that we will henceforth pay greater reverence than ever to churches and holy places."

 Henry, though, would not let the idea of punishing Owain go lightly, and hatched a dangerous scheme. He would continue to build up forces along the Gwynedd border and engage in small skirmishes, even committing himself and his personal troops to a folly of a battle at Crogen. There, in torrential downpour, his vanguard took heavy losses and he himself almost fell but for Hugh de St Claire, constable of Oakwood Castle, taking a spear in the chest meant for the Henry. Again Henry retreated, but though a loss and a tremendous gamble, it had the desired effect; distracted by the English aggression and tempted by the idea of a counter offensive, Owain and his men over committed themselves to the north eastern border area leaving the southern border with fellow Welsh Prince Powys open for attack. Flush with cash and equipment on loan from Henry, Powys took the oppurtunity to seize a sizable chunk of Gwynedd for himself; ironically, it was as much territory as Owain had originally taken from the English during the Anarchy. The message was received, and while no formal truce or peace treaty was signed, Owain nor his heirs would step foot into English territory and had even given verbal commitments to come to the military aid Henry if called.

Deheubarth

While Henry's campaign in Gwynedd had mixed results, his campaign in southern Wales, which started right after the events of Ewloe forrest, was more of a clear success. In 1063, one of the  pre-William the Conquror original Marcher Lords, Bernard de Neufmarché, had lead a resoundingly successful campaign against the southern Welsh who he accused of banditry and piracy. The conclusion was the defeat of Rhys ap Tewdwr, Prince of Deheubarth at the time, at the battle of Brecon, which resulted in a number of Marcher lords assuming power along the entire Welsh southern coast. But, as stated before, with some of the Marcher Lords' forces being dragged into the Anarchy, much of that territory was lost to his grandson Rhys ap Gruffydd; and like Owain made a couple of inroads into England itself on the extreme southern border. Again Henry, using surprise and lighting speed drove the Welsh from English lands, but this time instead of invasion Henry used coercive diplomacy to bring Deheubarth to heel. Henry posted a large military force on the border with Deheubrath, then let it be known that he intended to support all who have lost territory during the years of the civil war to return southern Wales to the previous status quo. Deheubrath, pre Anarchy was tiny, and had used the confusion to not only take the Welsh lands from the March Lords but made many surprise gains against nearly all its neighboring Welsh provinces, quadrupling its territory. Faced with the prospect of all his grandfathers old enemies coming to destroy Deheubrath with an English army at their back Prince Gruffydd sued for peace with Henry. Henry demanded the entire southern coast back into the hands of the Marcher lords and that English Lord Walter de Clifford be given the castle of Cantref Bychan, inside Deheubarth, to act as a liaison to the English crown. Once things were finalized and settled, King Henry "retreated" from involvement in southern Wales. Lord Clifford made a half hearted attempt to seize one of Gruffydd's castle at Cantref Mawr. Prince Gruffydd appealed to King Henry but after days of not receiving any response took matters into his own hands and drove Clifford not only from Mawr but out of Bychan as well, a surprising victory to the Welsh. But soon the Prince would realize it was all an entrapment. Henry responded to the attack claiming that the Prince had broken their pact and if he had waited just a few days more he would have reprimanded his subject, Lord Clifford, himself. Lord Clifford for his part was "punished" by not being able to reclaim Bychan, but Henry demanded compensation for the Prince's breaking of their treaty, the compensation was that the Prince's son, Hywel was to be hostage to Henry and that Prince Gruffydd was now a client of the English crown, still ruler of Deheubarth but subject to Henry.
 

King David I and King Malcolm IV

Scotland in comparison would be a cake walk for Henry, having already displayed his girt in Wales and with the powerful King David dead, succeeded by the young sickly and impressionable Malcolm IV. Though David had been allies of Matilda and Henry, the Scottish were not keen on just giving up any of the lands they had taken from King Stephen and their hated rivals, the English Northern Barons, during the Anarchy; David and his lords viewed those occupied territories as payment for their allegiance with Henry. But David knew that that argument may be on shaky grounds with the church legalists that Henry had a reputation for having on his side. So before he passed away, in an effort to legitimize continued Scottish occupation and control of the captured lands, instead of annexing them into Scotland, David named his grandsons as the rightful English lords of those provinces (their father having died years earlier). To his eldest grandson and heir, Malcolm, he dubbed the Earl of North Umbria and of Huntingdon; and his younger grandson William he dubbed the earl of Cumbria. But the newly crowned Malcolm had not inherited his grandfather's mettle. Small of frame, constantly ill, not as sharp or as politically ambitious as is grandfather, and reliant on a bevy of advisors, Malcolm was more playing at king than being one. And whats worse for his loyal subjects, he grew up enthralled and in awe of the romanticized tales of the famed Norman knights: of them riding alongside his grandfathers warriors against the "vile usurper" King Stephen or conquering the holy land from the heathen Saracens. Word of the boy kings fancies reached Henry, and Henry in turn was determined to use it to his advantage. He used his recent Welsh campaigns to intimidate any Scottish noble in his way to befriending the boy. He offered his tutelage in what it means to be a ruler, and most of all he promised to groom Malcolm into becoming the thing the boy wanted most, a knight. Henry manipulated the boy by dangling the prospect of knighthood like a carrot on a stick; that all Malcolm had to do was let Henry take him under the elder statesman's wing and heed his lessons. And for Henry's first lesson, the importance that a king demand that his vassals pay him homage and if they do not, to met out appropriate punishment. Henry used the example of his great audience back in April 1155, were all land holding lords of the English realm were expected to come to pay their respect and acknowledge Henry's lordship over them. However, as Henry pointed out, Malcolm and William had not attended, and being Earls of English lands they had committed a grave breach of protocol which must be punished. Malcolm not wanting to disappoint the man he was counting on dubbing him a knight, submitted to whatever punishment his mentor thought appropriate. Henry stripped him of the earldom of North Umbria and William of the earldom of Cumbria, but "graciously" allowed Malcolm to retain the earldom of Huntingdon as a gesture of "forgiveness". The Scottish lords watched helplessly as their king was tricked into giving up two large chunks of land they had fought the Northern Barons so long for control over. And to make matters worse Malcolm gave a promise of military aid to Henry whenever he called, in hopes of winning his coveted knighthood from his mentor. 

One thing that was made clearly apparent in all this was that King Henry Plantagenet was not only focused, but seemed tireless. He preferred hunting and travel cloths to formal wear no matter what the day called for and gave little to no time to pomp and prestige. No fatigue what so ever showed, nor attention diminished, as he bounced from one end of the country to the other, juggling foreign affairs with Wales and Scotland, at the same time convening with his new right hand man Beckett in their partnered efforts in forming the laws, agencies, appointments, and institutions, that would be the pillars of a stable internal English government. Not even the death of his first born, 3 year old William, was enough to slow him down; in fact the tragedy seemed to spur him on in his work even more fervently. The question on everyone's minds at all time was were would the King pop up next. A dispute between two lords over taxing boundaries, a local knighting, a convening of court to dispense justice, the king showed up everywhere ready to work from dawn till dusk. And if not the king than one of Beckett's appointed agents, was assigned to administer decrees in the king's name. With England now secure and the impressive and brilliant Beckett running the realm with clockwork precision (much to the ire of the ever ambitious Queen), Henry could now go back to France in confidence in his ability to expand his power and territory while keeping King Louie of France at bay.

Castle Chinon

 While Henry was away dealing with Wales and Scotland little had changed in France: he had a non-aggrssion pact with the Count of Flanders stating that neither one will help nor hinder the other in their conflicts with King Louie; he officially recognized Theobald V as Count of Blois, instead of just a stand in while he was away; and even had a uneasy peace treaty with Louie in 1154 where Louie formally recognized Henry's control of the cities of Vernon, on the northern end of the Vexin, and Neuf-Marche on the borders of Flanders in exchange for rudimentary acknowledgment that Louie was his King in France, though still Henry would never give official homage in person. In 1158, Henry moved his family back to France: 3 year old Henry, 2 year old Matilda, new born Richard (yes, that Richard), and his queen Eleanor pregnant with their 5th child Geoffrey. While the family stayed in his ancestral home of Angers, Henry would build the impressive fortress of Chinon to be his administrative and treasury center on this side of the channel as London was for the otherside.  The expansive castle was built from the ruins of one of the castles of the legendary King Clovis I and the symbolic importance of Henry setting up his base of power where the first ever king of the Franks once ruled from was not lost on any in France. Standing on top of cliffs over looking the Vienne River, in the heart of the borderlands between his County of Anjou and Eleanor's Duchy of Aquitaine, protected on three sides by cliffs and rushing water it was one of the most impressive bastions in all of France. William of Newburgh would write upon its completion:

"its strength was such that nature seemed to vie with human art in fortifying and defending it"

Mont-Saint-Michel

 But even with his new capital complete, with messengers and packages running back and forth between Chinon and London, night and day, his realms in France and England running like well oiled machines, Henry's ambitions would never rest. Before his next territorial target could be sought he needed to shore up the peace between him and King Louie, so he went into negotiations with the French King in the coastal city of Mont-Saint-Michel in the neutral Duchy of Brittany. The terms of the peace were Louie would formally recognize the Duchy of Normandy's control of the entire Vexin, in exchange Henry's son Henry (3) was betrothed to Margaret (1), Louie's eldest daughter with his 2nd wife. At last peace between Normandy/Anjou and the French crown seemed possible. Henry was now free to set his sights on his next target, the very Duchy he was sitting in for the negotiations, Brittany.

The peninsula duchy of Brittany, like Normandy was starkly different than the rest of France in custom and dialect. But where Normandy was a hybrid of Nordic and French culture, Brittany had a Celtic and French mix due to their strong ties to the Irish and Welsh. Largely independent from the rest of France do to geography it was also not a very centralized province either, the Dukes of Brittany having little real control over their vassals. But currently the entire province was in the midst of an on again off again civil war since the death of Duke Conan III in 1148. Henry had decided to throw his support behind Conan IV and use him as a puppet ruler of the peninsula. In exchange for Normandy and Anjou support for his claim Henry demanded Nantes, one of the Duchy's largest cities, be returned to his brother Geoffrey, as it was Geoffrey's by royal appointment. If you recall, Louie had offered Nantes to Geoffrey in exchange for betraying Henry. The current Count of the city, Hoel of Cornwall, had seized the city after Geoffrey never showed up to take up the position because he had been detained first by Theobald V and than handed over to his brother. Hoel was Conan IV uncle, so Conan refused Henry's offer. With financial and material support from Henry, Geoffrey started an insurrection within the city and overthrew Hoel. When Conan moved against Nantes to restore his uncle, Henry moved the armies of Anjou, Normandy, and Blois in, under the pretext that Conan was committing treason against the French crown by attempting to remove a royally appointed count of the city. Henry's forces easily defeated Conan and declared Brittany under the protectorate of Normandy until such time an appropriate Duke could be named, i.e. when he decided which one of his sons he would name as Duke. As for Louie, not a word, neither an endorsement or condemnation of Henry's supposed defense of a royal appointment or of Normandy taking primacy over Brittany. The silence from Paris was deafening throughout all of France as the whole of the country was starting to truly fear the meteoric rise of Henry Plantagenet and his Angevin Empire.